Why I won’t buy a Sony console.

July 22, 2008

Most of you reading this know me from my staff role at The Wiire and as member of The Wiire.com Podcast. As of late, I’ve been receiving a lot of brutal hatemail constructive and thought provoking emails as to why I harp on Sony all the time. And believe it or not, I do have my reasons that extend deeper than the “OMGZ SONY DOESN’T INNOVATE THEY STEELZ FROM NITNENSO!!!!1!” comments.

First, I should point out that I have nothing against the PS3 aside from the the name that’s emblazoned on it. The console is by far the most powerful piece of hardware this generation, and will most likely stretch beyond its years as more than just a gaming console. It is a lot more powerful than the XBOX 360 and we aren’t even going to begin with the Wii comparisons. (Your Poodle vs. Godzilla). Also, there are some really intriguing games set to be released in the near future. Killzone 2 looks to have shed its mediocre image, with an online system looks insanely in depth. I admit that I completely lost interest in Little Big Planet, however at E3 ‘08, they showcased a level, map, uhhh locale where they had to fight a boss by moving a spring board to bounce items thrown, back into the face of the boss. What?! Boss battles in a physics toy?

The reason I have to make the above statement clear is to point out the fact that a) I’m not ignorant to what Sony is doing in the industry and b) I’m not some raving fanboy who thinks everything that is on the PS3 is crap for no other reason than cause its not on their favorite console (which more often than not is just the first console they’ve ever owned). My views against Sony are strictly against the company itself, and not anything to do with the console.

Now, I’m going to restrain from pulling out lame quotes from PR representatives saying their crab has weak points, or that the Wii is too expensive. These statements defiantly annoy me, but every company has said some ridiculous things before. I’m also going to refrain from their decision to build the most ridiculously spec’ed out machine which almost put them out of the reach of gamers cost wise or the fact that they are one of the worst hypocritical companies in todays gaming world (ie: motion sensing controllers anyone?) What everything really comes down to is the fact that Sony has other markets in their control that they are trying to benefit from using the PlayStation3

Sony wanted Blu-ray to become the next defacto standard in high definition media for obvious reasons. They get to have all the rights for companies to produce high definition movies, All Blu-ray players need to pay decoding fees to Sony, and Sony gets to have their name on something which will intern, help sell “Sony pure video players”. Now the fact that Sony used this tactic to perform this feat isn’t evil. It’s not like I think they are doing anything unethical. However, when a company sits down to develop its next console, and they go at it in an angle that will increase sales of ‘product y, x, and z’ (yes in that order) Its hard for me to believe that their mindset is completely in tune with the gaming market.

Again, does it make sense for Sony to have pushed their other products using the gaming market? absolutely. Do i have to like it? No. To be fair, this is why I originally was annoyed when Microsoft came onto the the gaming scene as I thought they would be pushing Windows desktops. I am very concerned, however, about multi-platform gaming with the 360 and “Games for Windows” but that is for another post.

At the end of the day, that’s why I don’t want to buy a Sony console. Some may feel it’s rather trivial, while others will label me a wii60 fanboy. I don’t really care, but I thought I should explain myself in greater detail than a podcast/comment would allow.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have Metal Gear Solid 4 to play.

Filed under: Sony, Video Games |